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What does it take to go from a 120-pound weight loss journey to landing on the 50 Top Pizza list in your very first year of business? In this episode of The Hot Slice, hosts Kate Lavin and Denise Greer sit down with Arpan Patel, the owner behind Lucky Dough Pizza in Pensacola, Florida, for a conversation packed with hard-won lessons every operator can use.

Arpan's story starts with a personal transformation. After losing 120 pounds, he discovered that clean eating wasn't about cutting out the food you love. It was about obsessing over ingredients. That obsession became the heartbeat of his pizzeria, where pizza and a health-conscious lifestyle live side by side!

Here's what we dig into:

• The origin story that took Arpan from home cook to award-winning pizzaiolo
• Sourdough and natural leavening mastery — why he ditched commercial yeast after spotting a synthetic emulsifier on the label, and how he never makes the same dough recipe twice
• Time and temperature as the make-or-break variables, especially when you're baking in Florida's humidity with no climate-controlled dough room
• Landing on the 50 Top Pizza list in year one (and why he first thought the email was a scam!)
• Surviving a demand surge after local press hit, including how he limited online orders, capped takeout, and made tough calls to protect the guest experience
• His alfresco, wood-fired setup — running two wood-fire ovens and learning to love the craft over convenience
• A relentless focus on premium ingredients: grass-fed buffalo mozzarella with A2 protein, organic olive oil shipped straight from Puglia, and Mountain Valley spring water in every batch of dough
• Pricing for quality — from a $15 marinara to a $32 prosciutto di Parma, and why his customers say it's worth the price and worth the wait
• What's next as he works toward an indoor location and keeps perfecting his wood-fired craft

Dough management, clean sourcing, and building a pizzeria that stands out in your market — Arpan's small-steps approach is a masterclass in patience, experimentation and staying true to your product.

Tune in now and get inspired! 🍕

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How do you win a world pizza championship with a pie you'd never fully made before? On this episode of The Hot Slice, presented by Pizza Today, we sit down with Carmela Williams of Antonio's Italian Ristorante in Elkhart, Indiana, fresh off her world champion title in the Americana division at the Caputo Cup in Naples, Italy.

It was Carmela's first time competing internationally, and almost nothing went according to plan. Airport officials confiscated her ingredients. Her hotel had no prep space or refrigeration. The competition ovens swung wildly from 320 to nearly 600 degrees. So, she improvised, blending mozzarella with scamorza she'd never worked with and leaning on instincts sharpened by her restaurant's 70-year-old Blodgett ovens.

Here's what you'll take away:

• How she built a winning pizza on the fly under real pressure
• Dough and cheese decisions that held up when conditions didn't
• Why her family legacy (father Paul and sister Gemma are also world champions) shaped her competitive mindset

With 14 years in the industry, Carmela also breaks down the operational philosophy behind Antonio's: open four days a week, no reservations, first-come, first-served. It's a candid look at craft, grit, and running a pizzeria your way.

Show Notes:

Check out a fun look at her competition attempt: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZx3TUiJQ4J/

Follow Antonio’s Italian Ristorante at https://www.antoniositalian.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/antoniositalianelkhart/

Register for Pizza Expo Columbus, bringing every element of the pizza industry together under one roof in the Midwest at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on October 11-12, 2026. Learn. Network. Shop. Eat. And compete. Register now!

Join Pizza Today for a “Future of Pizza Dough” panel discussion July 23rd, 2026 @ 2 PM ET. The webinar features hand-selected, award-winning pizzeria industry leaders, including Tony Gemignani, Laura Meyer and Will Grant. These experts are sitting down to share decades of hard-earned knowledge about the science behind the perfect crust. Register now.

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In this episode of The Hot Slice, we sit down with Mike Dew, the man behind one of the most intriguing pizza concepts in Northern Kentucky. Dew walks us through the realities of a longer-than-expected build-out, the quirks of a historic building and the creative ways he repurposed original wood flooring at Wayfarer Tavern in Dayton, Kentucky.

Beyond a pizzeria menu he likens to a steakhouse, Dew shares how a thoughtfully curated, value-driven wine list turned his spot into an unexpected wine destination. He also partners with neighbor New Riff Distilling to create a single-barrel bourbon program.

For the pizza itself: Dew fuses three regional styles: Midwestern tavern square cuts, East Coast thin crust and the irresistible Detroit-style frico. You'll learn why he skips the curing step and how crowd-favorite pies like the Korean Corn Cheese and the legendary Pickle Power made it onto the menu.

EPISODE NOTES

Wayfarer Tavern: wayfarertavern.com

Pizza Expo Columbus: pizzaexpocolumbus.com